First grow, first post

First post from AK and this is my first grow, but didn’t get the seeds from here, I found this website afterwards so forgive me for that. I expect to update this from here out until harvest the best I can. I have thoroughly researched this growing topic on here so I have an idea what I’m doing. The plants have started well, I lost 4 to unknown reasons. I started all of them in wet paper towels, then buried them. The plants I think are only a little behind because there was a bit of a hiccup with the first primary grow light I ordered. It arrived faulty, I had to return and re-order. So that prevented me from transplanting. They are on week 6 from sprout. Let me know how they look, suggestions are appreciated being new and I know there tons of people here that have more experience than myself and willing to listen. One of the girls is a bit yellow from not getting enough light before transplant. Should be fine now after feeling the new light. This is day 2.5 of the transplant and new light. New branches on the undergrowth have really started to take off.
Strains are:
OG Kush, THC Bomb, white widow, Girl Scout cookies, and a medical version with high CBD called Txaki.

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Welcome! I found this site after I had purchased beans elsewhere so my first journal is not of ILGM products, thats okay!!!

Things look great so far and it sounds and looks like your research paid off, you’re on your way to growing your own gear!! Congrats!!

Here is a link to my journal. Two photo plants in an indoor scrog

http://ilgmforum.com/t/a-trial-of-firsts/11835

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Looking good @Covertgrower

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Thank you sir. I almost considered doing a scrog, perhaps next time. Very nice grow. I have been considering putting a corn cob shaped LED next to the big light for side lighting. Or even side lighting near the corners. Would I benefit from additional lighting especially when I switch to flower? (My primary grow light is half brightness right now) Eventually these will be in a 4X4 area in a 4X8 grow tent so it will have reflective sides. Budget allowed for the light, the tent will be next.

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Standard is to shoot for approx 50w per square foot of flowering space to achieve dense ripe flowers. I may be wrong or off on this a bit but others will fill in the blanks.

I have 405w of true LED wattage and 250w of CFL so I am at 655w/10.5sq ft = 62.4w per square foot

Sounds like a good excuse for me to purchase another light “just in case” haha. I would put another one of this one it is my main light:
Morsen MAX12 Super Bright led grow Light 3600W with On Off Dimmer Switch Amazon.com

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What light do you have now?

You’ll probably want some additional lighting when you can get to it. One of the issues with the led corn lights is that you can only get a portion of the diodes toward your plants. The others will face a different direction and be lost, or have to be reflected.

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Welcome to our forum if you have any questions thoughts or concerns we are here to assist you anyway we can love the set up looks great keep up the good work

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Added link in response above yours. I think we were responding at the same time.

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You have a lot of plants, and they look great. I’m only doing one for my first, and will do two next time.
This will be fun to watch :slight_smile: Good luck with the grow.

Thanks! Lets just say, if I could do this over I would’ve stuck with one strain, so they all would be the same height. I have multiple strains with different heights. I was enthusiastic and wanted to try a little of everything… it wasn’t until I sprouted and realized they’d would be different heights. Learned a lot already. Anyone else growing multiple height strains and how did they cope with this issue? I was considering trimming the some off the tops to keep them shorter.

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I have my lights attached to slightly loose cable ties on the frame cross beams and I move the light back and forth, adjusting the height from the canopy based on which 3 plants I have it directly over, I move the light every 3 hours 5 times a day. I know you can buy light movers but I don’t think they will adjust the distance of the light to the canopy though. It’s a little labor intensive but my plants are looking good. I also put my 2 shorter WW Autos on top of buckets to bring them closer to the height of the others but they are still pretty short comparatively. Looks like you are going to have your hands full. Good luck

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Thanks, and I considered moving the light around as well. I typically check on them about 4 times a day anyways. (Something new might sprout!) I’ll look into getting a light mover, I have the rope pulley thing to move it up and down. I will probably get another light in time because I really want a quality harvest.
As far as the light wattage are we going by the actual usage, or the “equivalent”? This light uses according to the manufacturer about 545W its equivalent is 3600. At 545W/32sqft that’s 17W a foot. This thing is already bright.

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They’ve got a discussion going on over in another thread where they guys have gotten meters that are showing the cheesy Chinese lights aren’t even drawing the wattage that is being shown in the fine print for most of the lights, let alone what the companies are advertising them at. Let me see if I can find that thread. I don’t know too much about lighting or electricity but I think it’s coming down to “you get what you pay for” kind of thing. Not familiar with your light but if it is truly 17 watts per square foot then you are definitely going to need more light for all of those plants.

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You will need 35 to 50watts a sqft. With 35 being the bare minimum.

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I’ve got two strains going & one strains smaller than other. Had to put smaller girls on blocks to be same height. All were topped. This is my first indoor grow and I went with 6 plants, wishing now I’d gone with 4 as I’m unable to utilize the full potential of each plant. What i didn’t understand was that more plants doesn’t necessarily mean more product. By working each one it’s amazing the buds each one can produce if given the opportunity.
Welcome & Happy Growing

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@AmnesiaHaze has a great post about the debate of LED, and has the same type of LED that I have. Along with great light statistics, and some comparisons. Kudos to that post. When I get another light it I’ll be satisfied. I researched light movers, and for the price, I’ll just purchase another light. (What budget? Lol) I didn’t know there is a limit on how many posts you can have per day. Tried to respond to everyone that posted. Again I can’t stress the usefulness of this forum. So many great people that help others on here. So glad I joined. Thanks @Laurap for suggesting buckets. I may have to do that for the girl Scout cookies and white widow, as those are considerably shorter than some of the others.
Update:
Third day of transplant, there’s some pretty roots coming out!

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Looking good my friend. I put some Amnesia haze and Ak47 in same grow. Amnesia overshot the Ak47 by alot so that’s what worked for me.
Best of growing to you!

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Welcome @Covertgrower
I’m still new myself and getting ready to start my first inside grow. The people are awesome here and I’ve already learned a lot just reading thru posts and using the search tab for the site.
Good luck :sunglasses:

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You’re ok. More plants doesn’t mean more weed. But having a full area does, provided you can provide the necessary requirements for photosynthesis.

If you’re looking to maximize your yeild per seed, then you’ll want to grow less plants and run a long veg time. If you’re not as worried about seed cost, you can run more plants and harvest sooner with a shorter veg time. It’s usually pretty relative to what you’re trying to accomplish. Unless you’re growing autos, then you have to kind of guesstimate lol.

Lights, arrrrh… it’s always the damn lights haha.

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